1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to controlling access to data and more particularly to a method, system and computer program product for controlling data access through a question and answer mechanism. The present invention includes use of various technologies described in the references identified in the appended LIST OF REFERENCES and cross-referenced throughout the specification by numerals in brackets corresponding to the respective references, the entire contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Discussion of the Background
In recent years, technology has enabled everyone to be more accessible. However, everyone wants his or her information to be kept private. Today, you must remember and/or track dozens of identifications (ID's), passwords, numbers, addresses, etc. You are also faced with the problem of notifying your contacts when such items of information change. For example, if you get a new phone number, you must inform all of your friends, family and business contacts of the change in your phone number. There is also the problem of limiting access to your personal information to the people and/or systems that you want to see your personal information. Many services, such as instant messaging (IM) [1], provide a means to enter your personal information. However, such services do not provide for a way to control access to your personal information.
For example, you can have a unique IM screen name or ID, but you are not required to provide your personal information in a corresponding profile. In fact, most people do not enter profile information because they are concerned with privacy. As a result, it is nearly impossible to look up a person's IM screen name or ID unless it is given to you in advance of contacting such a person.
Another service, ENUM [2], also allow a user to publish or not publish the user's personal information. The ENUM solution, however, is limiting in that it does not allow the user to set up their own account and it does not let the user choose the user's own ID (i.e., the user's ID is set to a phone number of the user). Accordingly, such a solution is very limiting for users that do not have a phone, for users that share a phone, for users with unlisted phone numbers, etc.
Therefore, there is a need for method, system and computer program product for controlling data access, while providing flexibility, security and simplicity.